Let’s embrace Artificial Intelligence… for socio-economic devt – Education Minister

Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum

The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said despite challenges associated with Artificial Intelligence (AI), there was the urgent need to harness the facility towards the country’s socio-economic development.

He said the country should consider investing in AI to be able to take advantage of the emerging AI revolution, currently sweeping across the globe.

Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum(seated fourth from left, front row) with other dignitaries and participants at the workshop

Dr Adutwum disclosed this in Accra yesterday, when he opened a day’s training workshop on AI, organised by the University of Environment and Sustainable Development (UESD) in collaboration with the Yonsel University of South Korea.

The event was on the theme: ‘AI, ICT, and the Future of Education in Ghana 2024,’ and was attended by academics, teachers, students and other stakeholders in the education sector.

The minister noted that AI, as an Information Communication Technology (ICT) tool, was embedded with numerous opportunities and advantages.

He, however, cautioned that the disadvantages associated with the use of AI required that the country moved ahead of the curve in order to maximise it use.

“AI can be a learning tool…, as well as what I call a tool to be learned. If you look at the world economic forum and the projection it is making, we are going to lose 85 million jobs by the next few years and within the same period, 97million jobs are going to be created through AI,” he emphasised.

Dr Adutwum said universities offering ICT courses must align their programmes to meet the changing phase of ICT education of which AI was critical.

He noted that studying of ICT in the country’s universities was instrumental in modernising educational practice, offering students and faculty access to a wealth of digital research.

To this end, Dr Adutwum said AI was increasingly being integrated into academic curricula to prepare students for the demands of the digital age, while adding research endeavours by automating data analysis, accelerating the discovery process and contributing to advancement in various fields.

He said government had prioritised AI and ICT through a number of interventions to ensure that students conformed to future standards.

These interventions, he explained included the construction of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) schools in all ten regions in addition to centres across existing schools.

In addition to these, the minister said government was transforming the learning environment at the junior high school level by constructing modern and fit for purpose school buildings across the country.

On his part, a Professor at Yonsei University, Jan Saeng Kim, said the collaboration between the two universities was to explore opportunities within the AI space in Ghana, for development.

He said AI had become a key feature with its impact on learning outcomes being enormous.

Prof. Kim said that his country was willing to partner with various stakeholders in the education sector for the development of AI.

BY CLIFF EKUFUL